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Permaculture in Auroville, India, created by the Transition movement. Credit: http://www.healthesoilcsa.org.

Social movements,
including those opposing globalisation, environmental destruction and
racism, typically start with a problem; a sense that things aren’t
right and that change is needed. Often, they are fed by anger at the
injustice, the violence or the environmental destruction surrounding
us. They are often premised on struggle and resistance.

In 2009, after both
my daughters had started school, I was ready to become involved in
social change groups again. A few years earlier I had become immersed
in strengths-based approaches to working with communities and wanted
to explore this approach in the context of social change.

The Transition
movement offered this possibility. It addresses some of the big
environmental challenges we face – including climate change, our
addiction to oil, the skewed economy and the myth of endless
expansion – by creating alternative visions for communities and
starting practical projects that help get there.

It sees the crisis
we face as an “opportunity for doing something different, something
extraordinary”.

The
aim of Transition is to help you be the catalyst in your community
for an historic push to make where you live more resilient, healthier
and bursting with strong local livelihoods, while also reducing its
ecological footprint. (From What
is Transition)

The Transition
movement is an example of a strengths-based approach to social
change. Rather than focusing on all the barriers we face in
creating more sustainable communities, it focuses on opportunities
and potential. Transition groups attempt to create the change
they want to see.

Adopting a
strengths-based approach to social change can feel a bit like walking
a tight rope. If, generally, social change movements critique how
things are and challenge the status quo, strengths-based approaches
look for, and focus on, strengths and opportunities. Social change
movements have a tendency to rely on conflict and confrontation,
while strengths-based approaches essentially rely on cooperation and
collaboration.

Strengths-based
approaches are based on the belief that everyone and all communities
have skills and strengths, and that change is more likely and more
sustainable when we focus on these strengths and possibilities rather
than focusing on problems and challenges.

Strengths-based
approaches recognise that people are the experts of their own
situations and people working with them - social or community
workers, for example - should not position themselves as experts with
the all the answers. Strengths-based approaches, such as asset-based
community-driven development, are community-led and rely on
building and strengthening relationships.

Asset-based
community-driven development starts with communities identifying
their assets. This includes the skills and passions of individuals,
voluntary community groups like local sports clubs, and their
physical and economic resources. They then explore ways of building
connections between them.

A strengths-based
approach is not blind optimism or looking at the world through
rose-coloured glasses. We don’t ignore problems, or pretend they
don’t exist, but see them within a broader context. Change is
dependent on using available strengths and resources. We make a
conscious decision to focus on the CPR of strengths:

To take the metaphor
of a half-full/half-empty glass, you might say that social change
starts with the half-empty part of the glass (what is missing), while
a strengths-based approach starts with the half-full part (what we
have to work with).

When adopting a
strengths-based approach, particularly in social and community work,
there is a danger that we might reinforce neoliberal notions of
individual responsibility – problems are due to the limitations of
individuals and communities.

Unless we’re
careful we may not pay enough attention to the broad political and
social context, we might gloss over structural issues (such as the
way in which economic inequality is perpetuated) and avoid conflict
between competing interests. Strengths-based approaches therefore
need the more critical input of social change movements and it is
essential they have social justice at the heart of their work.

But social change
movements can also learn from strengths-based approaches. Social
change happens when new ways of doing things replace old ways. Rather
than putting all our efforts into stopping what we don’t want,
strengths-based approaches can help us discover what we want to
create instead. In a strengths-based approach to social change, our
critique of the current social, political and economic context
includes the things we value about the way things are.

We create a positive
vision of where we want to head and actively look for people and
resources that can help us get there.

Looking at big
social issues like climate change, discrimination and poverty can be
overwhelming. It can be hard to know where to start, and focusing
purely on the problem can make it seem insurmountable. By noticing
exceptions to the dominant way of doing things, looking for examples
of what is working and creating an alternative vision, possibilities
can start to emerge that assist us to move forward. We can see this
approach in the sharing
economy which challenges our current economic system by offering
alternatives. It’s also much easier to retain our energy and sense
of optimism in long-term campaigns when we are conscious of signs of
hope and change.

The questions we ask, the language we use, and the images we create
have a large influence on how we see people and situations. Asking
“What is wrong with our community?” will produce quite different
answers to asking, “What would our ideal community be like?”
Similarly, think of the different images created by talking about
‘illegal immigrants’ rather than ‘families seeking safety and
refuge,’ or discussing ‘collateral damage’ vs the ‘death of
innocent civilians.’ A strengths-based approach means that we also
think carefully about our how we view, and talk about, the people who
disagree with us.

A strengths-based
approach can help us imagine the transformation we want to see; it
can help us find the things we love in the world as well as the
things that need to change; and it can help us start creating a new
way of being that are consistent with our vision.

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